cognitive neuroscience, computational psychiatry

What are the neural and computational mechanisms that go awry in psychiatric patients and how do these deficits emerge during development?

Tobias Hauser is interested in understanding the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). His research aims to bridge the gaps between symptoms, aberrant cognitions and deficient neural processes using computational neuroimaging. He pursues a translational approach, where clinical, pharmacological and basic neuroscience studies mutually inform each other to better characterise the neural network deficiencies in mental health patients. Tobias has a developmental perspective and investigates when and how psychiatric symptoms manifest and how they are related to deviations of a canonical brain development. He uses a variety of neuroscientific techniques (fMRI, EEG, MEG, tDCS, pupillometry) and computational modelling to link overt behaviour to algorithmic and implementation levels.

I am very happy that I received a Research Fellowship from the Jacobs Foundation. This Fellowship will allow me to investigate the mechanisms underlying curiosity during development. I will also become part of a great network of scientists that are interested in development during childhood… Read more

Interested in a PhD in Computational Psychiatry? Then apply to our PhD program until 11 Feburary 2018 to pursue a PhD with me. Please feel free to contact me in advance and discuss potential projects. You can find all the details on the page ‘Join… Read more

We just published a new paper in Translational Psychiatry, where we investigate information gathering behaviour across a compulsivity spectrum. Crucially, we recruited subjects with high or low obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but which were matched for other psychiatric dimensions, such as depressive symptoms. We found that these… Read more

We have a few positions open for a PhD at the Max Planck UCL Centre. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in Computational Psychiatry and have a strong background in computational modelling and/or cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, then please apply for these great… Read more

A friend of mine, Nora Raschle, recently launched an excellent website that provides lots of materials and facts around the brain and science in general. I have to say this is a brilliant resource, especially for children that want to learn about the brain. Please… Read more

I am happy to announce that I received this year’s Kramer-Pollnow Award together with Anna Eichler. The Kramer-Pollnow Award is a German award primarily for work on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The committee thought that my previous work on ADHD (esp my paper at TiNS) was… Read more

We have recently published a new paper in PNAS, which investigates how the brains learns about different choice-relevant features, such as effort and reward. We found that learning about both, effort and reward arises from the dopamine-rich midbrain and propagates to different cortical and striatal… Read more

In a recent study published in eLife, we show that metacognition (the ability to consciously judge one’s performance) can be enhanced using a drug called propranolol. Propranolol blocks beta-adrenoceptors and thus impairs the effect of noradrenaline. Using a double-blind, placebo controlled drug study, we show… Read more

Can features of a psychiatric disorder actually have beneficial effects under certain conditions? This is the question that we asked in our new paper that just came out in PLOS Computational Biology. We were particularly interested in an indecisiveness that is often reported in patients… Read more

I am really proud to announce that I have just preprinted my first ever paper on BioRxiv. In this paper, we investigate the link between metacognition and compulsivity. Metacognition is the ability – or insight – to monitor your performance. So if you have good… Read more

news

I am very happy that I received a Research Fellowship from the Jacobs Foundation. This Fellowship will allow me to investigate the mechanisms underlying curiosity during development. I will also become part of a great network of scientists that are interested in development during childhood… Read more

Interested in a PhD in Computational Psychiatry? Then apply to our PhD program until 11 Feburary 2018 to pursue a PhD with me. Please feel free to contact me in advance and discuss potential projects. You can find all the details on the page ‘Join… Read more

We just published a new paper in Translational Psychiatry, where we investigate information gathering behaviour across a compulsivity spectrum. Crucially, we recruited subjects with high or low obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but which were matched for other psychiatric dimensions, such as depressive symptoms. We found that these… Read more

We have a few positions open for a PhD at the Max Planck UCL Centre. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in Computational Psychiatry and have a strong background in computational modelling and/or cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry, then please apply for these great… Read more

recent papers

We just published a new paper in Translational Psychiatry, where we investigate information gathering behaviour across a compulsivity spectrum. Crucially, we recruited subjects with high or low obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but which were matched for other psychiatric dimensions, such as depressive symptoms. We found that these… Read more

We have recently published a new paper in PNAS, which investigates how the brains learns about different choice-relevant features, such as effort and reward. We found that learning about both, effort and reward arises from the dopamine-rich midbrain and propagates to different cortical and striatal… Read more

In a recent study published in eLife, we show that metacognition (the ability to consciously judge one’s performance) can be enhanced using a drug called propranolol. Propranolol blocks beta-adrenoceptors and thus impairs the effect of noradrenaline. Using a double-blind, placebo controlled drug study, we show… Read more

Can features of a psychiatric disorder actually have beneficial effects under certain conditions? This is the question that we asked in our new paper that just came out in PLOS Computational Biology. We were particularly interested in an indecisiveness that is often reported in patients… Read more